How to Get Kids to Eat Vegetables Through Gardening • shovelandcrunch.com

🍅I couldn't sleep last night when I realized I had to show this with you. This is hands down the best thing that has come out of my many years of gardening: kids who grew up loving vegetables because they planted, watered, harvested, and tasted them themselves. The photos in this post pretty much say it all. If you want kids to eat vegetables, just give them the chance to grow their own. That's all there is to it! How to Get Kids to Eat Vegetables Through Gardening.

Jump to:

Why gardening helps kids love vegetables
From gardening kids to vegetable-loving adults
Let kids plant seeds and tend the garden
Harvesting vegetables together
Tasting the harvest straight from the garden
Homegrown herbs and vegetables my kids have loved
What my kids have learned from growing our own food
A garden gift that has lasted
✨More from the garden and kitchen
✏️How is your garden growing?

Why gardening helps kids love vegetables

The irrefutable proof is so simple, it's ridiculous. If you show your kids the wonder of planting a seed, let them water and tend the plants that come up, and pick the fruits of their labor, this will generate a lifetime of deep appreciation for food. And they'll love it! How could they not? Growing food is still magical to me, even decades later.

a woman with a young boy standing in front of her, both holding a large red tomato and smiling

And they will absolutely want to eat their very own homegrown vegetables that they've planted and grown themselves! Here's a gratuitous glut of photographic proof. The kids are grown today, and because of their formative years in the garden, they'll try any vegetable with a totally open mind, in cuisines from around the world, and they'll savor it! There's no deeper gratitude I could have than this. It's simple gustatory gold.

5 kids standing outside on the grass, holding freshly dug beets from the garden

From gardening kids to vegetable-loving adults

First, here's how old they are now. This will help you put into perspective why I've yelled at them again today for growing up when you see the rest of the photos.

5 grown siblings with 2 dogs. The sisters are holding the dogs' leashes and standing on the outside of a wagon that holds their 3 brothers holding a sign that says "brothers 4 sale."

Why did they have to keep growing up??? I'm so mad. Once they give me grandkids, and only then, can I possibly be appeased.

3 boys in a wangon with a sign saying "brothers 4 sale", and two girls on the sides and a dog on one side

5 young kids sitting in the grass in front of some nasturtiums and sunflowers

Here's the absolute botanical magic. There was nothing I had to do other than show them the way. If you want your kids to love food, this is the way to do it. The garden does all of the work for you. And wham! Suddenly you have full-grown, open-minded and food-curious kids.

two girls standing in front of raised bed gardens, one in front of the other; the youngest in front holds a large zucchini

I'm just going to let the photos tell the story. And then I'll go and yell at them again for not being adorably little like this anymore.

a young boy and young girl sitting at an outdoor table with labeled heirloom tomatoes on it

It's so, so important for them to know where food comes from. And that you don't need chemicals to help it grow. And that sprinkling on some love goes a long way to help it thrive.

a young girl planting seeds in a raised bed garden

Let kids plant seeds and tend the garden

Kids love to have ownership of their own part of the gardening process. If they plant their own seeds, tend them, harvest them when ripe, and taste them, this is such a wonderful full-circle lesson. And in our experience, they'll be more than happy to eat the fruits of their labor.

a young girl sitting in a large terra cotta pot in a garden next to a bench with potted flowers on it

a young boy outside watering some poppies with a small watering can

Harvesting vegetables together

Veggies are infinitely fresher and tastier when they come fresh out of the garden. There's so much more range in the colors and flavors, particularly with heirlooms. There's a huge selection of heirloom varieties from all over the world to experience and appreciate. And this also gives kids an appreciation for cultures and foods from the entire globe.

5 kids sitting in planters next to a raised garden bed, holding freshly-harvested fall crops

a girl and a boy sitting on a bench and holding up freshly-picked peppers

My kids are open-minded global citizens. They've volunteered, lived, traveled, and studied all over the world. And tasting these foods from far-flung places helped instill this respect and curiosity for cultures beyond their own.

Tasting the harvest straight from the garden

There's nothing like picking a vegetable straight from the garden and tasting it. It doesn't get fresher than this. And the flavors of fresh garden veggies are far more nuanced and delicious than the ones you'll find at the grocery store.

a boy eating a freshly-picked carrot outside on the grass, next to a girl tending her harvest

And it's important for kids to know why carrots would have soil on them and understand where food comes from. There's true magic involved in watching a seed mature into fully-grown, captivating food. This is such a beautiful life lesson for them. Hell, I'm still completely enthralled by this magic today, and I've been growing food my whole life!

a young girl tasting freshly-picked tomatoes and peppers in bowls on an outdoor table

a girl beside a garden holding and eating freshly-harvested carrots

Homegrown herbs and vegetables my kids have loved

I don't even dare list any recommended vegetables to grow. The sky's the limit of vegetables you can plant with your kids that they'll absolutely adore. We only had 3 raised beds and an herb garden when the kids were growing up, so we didn't have room to grow as many as the kids would have loved.

a young girl sitting on the grass, eating a freshly-picked carrot

So please don't limit yourselves! I encourage you to read about the most thrilling heirloom vegetables that even you yourself have not yet tasted, and to grow and eat them with your kids. It's truly a gift.

a young girl tending nasturtium plants growing in a garden

What my kids have learned from growing our own food

Kids are like sponges, and given the chance, they're capable of learning so many lessons in life. And the garden is no exception! They're capable of understanding and putting into practice complex gardening concepts.

a young girl harvesting mint in a garden

I made sure to incorporate real organic gardening principles into our family's food-growing practices. And the kids learned these lessons easily. It really helps when they can put the concepts into direct practice and see real results.

a young girl standing in front of a garden holding freshly-picked peppers

a boy sitting on the ground, holding a yellow tomato, and smiling

And I didn't stop at my own kids. I also started a school garden at their preschool and elementary school, for around 400 students. I worked with kids from age 3 to 9, teaching them organic concepts like:

Growing without chemicals
Succession planting
No-till growing
Using cover crops
Building soil health
Carbon-to-nitrogen ratios in composting
Leaving soil undisturbed as much as possible
Planting in the residue

a young girl stading outside and holding 2 large multicolor tomatoes

a girl on a bench in front of a garden holding some zucchini

a young girl standing in front of a raised bed garden, holding a freshly-picked pea pod

The students and I planted herb and vegetable seeds indoors under grow lights. We sold extra seedlings to raise funds for the garden, used trellises and stakes, and grew beans and peas up the sides of a living garden fort. We weeded, calculated seed depth and plant spacing, turned our compost, harvested our crops, and prepared them as food to enjoy together.

a young boy on a chair outside, holding a colander with freshly-picked yellow and purple beans

a boy sitting in the grass, holding freshly-picked cucumbers and peppers

Each grade at the school (including the preschool) had their own garden bed to take pride and ownership in, and they loved this.

a young girl lying down on the grass next to a large arrangement of freshly-harvested multicolored carrots

I met weekly with my 4th grade "Green Team," where we met over lunch and talked about important organic growing concepts. And the questions they asked were sophisticated, nuanced, and showed real curiosity and love for gardening and eating fresh food from all over the world.

a young girl sitting on the grass behind a large head of freshly-picked lettuce

Families of children at the school signed up all summer long to volunteer in the garden each week. Every slot was full, and the families loved working together in the garden. It was a truly special experience.

a boy in front of a garden holding a bowl of freshly-picked peppers

a young girl standing outside, holding hardy geranium flowers

A garden gift that has lasted

The open-mindedness that growing and tasting new foods brings is a wonderful gift. Please don't buy into cookbooks that advocate hiding vegetables so kids won't know they're included. I find this advice tragically misguided, and your kids are more sophisticated than that. They have the potential, if you guide them, to have not only open palates but open minds. Please give them that chance.

a young boy sitting outside on the grass, holding a large bicolor heirloom tomato

Even today, my family and I grow, taste, and swoon over food from all over the world. With new ingredients, flavors, and preparations we've never had before. And kids absolutely thrive on this kind of discovery. If you give them the opportunity, they'll rise to the occasion.

a young girl standing in front of raised bed gardens, holding a large bowl of freshly-picked heirloom tomatoes

And this encouragement to try new foods and experiences from all over the globe will also instill in them the desire to travel and see the world. The benefits to open-minded eating have no end.

a young girl in a chair holding 2 eggplants

a girl holding eggplants and a boy holding cucumbers

My kids have traveled the world, and they're still hungry to experience places and foods they've never encountered before. That seed of adventure and discovery was planted by, well, planting a seed. See how it all ties together? It's such a beautiful thing.

a woman in dirty gardening clothes standing in front of raised bed gardens

And to close it out with me glamming it up back in the day, all soiled and happy in the garden.

I hope this post has made you smile. I just treasure these photos. I'm so very grateful to the garden for giving the kids this precious gift of food love and appreciation.